Top Senior Player Loeb Enjoying the Southern California Lifestyle

The City of Riverside should seriously consider signing up longtime tennis teaching professional Larry Loeb to do a promotional tourism video spot praising all the great things about living in the Inland Empire.

Born and raised in Denver, Colo., the 65-year-old Loeb and his wife found their way to sunny Southern California back in 2009 when he accepted a job as the Director of Tennis at the Andulka Park Tennis Center in Riverside.

“It’s very, very nice to be out here in the Inland Empire where it doesn’t snow, and barely rains,” said Loeb, who said he grew tired from years of shoveling snow off the courts teaching outdoors in Denver. “We just love the lifestyle of Southern California. We have fallen in love with it here.”

After spending seven years as the director at Andulka Park – where he started the successful Andulka Park Men’s and Women’s Open Tournament – Loeb in recent years has been teaching private and semi-private lessons at a residence in Riverside.

A certified USPTA Elite Tennis Professional, Loeb can be found on the courts teaching up to 25 hours a week. “Yesterday I gave a lesson to a guy who is almost 80,” Loeb said. “And I also gave a lesson to a 7-year-old. I teach high school players, juniors, beginning men and women players, adult senior and league players.”

When he’s not on the teaching court, Loeb is training and working on his game. In 2017, Loeb had one of his most successful years ever on the court playing in his first year of the 65s.

Loeb entered seven tournaments and won four of them. “I had a really, really, really good 2017,” said Loeb, who was named USPTA California Division “Player of the Year” in 2012. Loeb proceeds to explain that before the great year, at the end of 2016, he suffered a heart attack and had to have two stents put in.

“It came out of blue and there was no indication,” he said. “Six weeks after my heart attack I got to the semifinals of a national tournament.”

Loeb was ranked No. 1 in Southern California and No. 6 in the nation in 65s singles in 2017. He also won a USTA silver ball by making the final at the National Indoors, and earned a bronze ball in singles.

Loeb won the Southern California Sectionals, the Pacific Southwest Seniors and the Fiesta Bowl in Phoenix. He started the year strong by making the semifinals at the Wilson World Senior Classic in the desert.

Loeb played his college tennis at the University of Pennsylvania from 1970-74 and earned his B.A. degree in history, as well as being the captain and No. 1 player. In November he was inducted into the school’s Tennis Hall of Fame in Philadelphia, sharing the same Hall space with another all-time great from Penn, Bill Tilden, the tennis great from the 1920s.

“To be inducted into the Penn Tennis Hall of Fame is something I’ll treasure for a lifetime,” Loeb said. “I had family members fly in from all over. It was just an amazing experience and such an honor.”

As an 11-time national champion over his long playing career, Loeb feels he has a lot to offer today’s recreational and national-level senior players. That’s why he is looking to use his attractive website www.larryloebtennis.com as an online resource for senior players. He plans to post instruction and health tips and make himself available to any player seeking advice or help with their game.

USTA League, the country’s largest adult recreational tennis league, gets hundreds of thousands of participants nationwide competing, exercising and enjoying the camaraderie of teammates. Tennis is the sport of a lifetime! Play is based on the National Tennis Rating Program (NTRP) rating system so you will play with and against players of similar ability. Whether you are new to the game or a former player, there’s a spot for you. USTA League also offers you and your teammates a chance to advance from local play to USTA League National Championship events.

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About Us

The USTA Southern California Section, which was founded in 1887, is one of the 17 sections of the United States Tennis Association.

Comprising Imperial, Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura Counties, the SCTA is one of the smallest in area of the USTA’s 17 sections.